William Blake Biography

William Blake was an English poet, engraver, and painter. A boldly
imaginative rebel in both his thought and his art, he combined poetic and
pictorial genius to explore life.

Youth

William Blake was born in London, England, on November 28, 1757, the
second son of a mens' clothing merchant. Except for a few years
in Sussex, England, his entire life was spent in London. From his
earliest years he saw visions. He would see trees full of angels or
similar sights. If these were not true mystical visions, they were the
result of the artist's intense spiritual understanding of the
world. From his early teens Blake wrote poems, often setting them to
melodies of his own composition.

At age ten Blake started at the well-known Park's drawing school,
and at age fourteen he began a seven-year apprenticeship (studying and
practicing under someone skilled) to an engraver. It was as an engraver
that Blake earned his living for the rest of his life. After he was
twenty-one, Blake studied for a time at the Royal Academy of Arts, but
he was unhappy with the instruction and soon left.

In August 1782 Blake married Catherine Boucher, who had fallen in love
with him at first sight. He taught her to read and write, and she later
became a valued assistant. His "sweet shadow of delight,"
as Blake called Catherine, was a devoted and loving wife.

Early works

When he was twenty-six, he wrote a collection entitled
Poetical Sketches.
This volume

William Blake.
Reproduced by permission of the

National Portrait Gallery (London)

.

was the only one of Blake's poetic works to appear in
conventional printed form—he later invented and practiced a new
method.

After his father died in 1784, Blake set up a print shop next door to
the family shop. In 1787 his beloved brother Robert died; thereafter
William claimed that Robert communicated with him in visions. It was
Robert, William said, who inspired him with a new method of illuminated
etching. The words and or design were drawn in reverse on a plate
covered with an acid-resisting substance; acid was then applied. From
these etched plates pages were printed and later
hand-colored. Blake used his unique methods to print almost all of his
long poems.

In 1787 Blake produced
Songs of Innocence
(1789) as the first major work in his new process, followed by
Songs of Experience
(1794). The magnificent lyrics in these two collections carefully
compare the openness of innocence with the bitterness of experience.
They are a milestone because they are a rare instance of the successful
union of two art forms by one man.

Days of betrayal

Blake spent the years 1800 to 1803 in Sussex working with William
Hayley, a minor poet and man of letters. With good intentions Hayley
tried to cure Blake of his unprofitable enthusiasms. Blake finally
rebelled against this criticism and rejected Hayley's help. In
Milton
(c. 1800–1810), Blake wrote an allegory (story with symbols) of
the spiritual issues involved in this relationship. He identified with
the poet John Milton (1608–1674) in leaving the safety of heaven
and returning to earth. Also at this time in life Blake was accused of
uttering seditious (treasonous) sentiments. He was later found not
guilty but the incident affected much of Blake's final epic (long
lyric poem highlighting a single subject),
Jerusalem
(c. 1804–1820).

Back in London, Blake worked hard at his poems, engraving, and painting,
but he suffered several reverses. He was the victim of fraud in
connection with his designs for Blair's (1699–1746) poem
The Grave.
He also received insulting reviews of that project and of an exhibition
he gave in 1809 to introduce his idea of decorating public buildings
with portable frescoes (paintings done on moist plaster using
water-based paints).

Blake had become a political sympathizer with the American and French
Revolutions. He composed
The Four Zoas
as a mystical story predicting the future showing how evil is rooted in
man's basic faculties—reason, passion, instinct, and
imagination. Imagination was the hero.

Later years

The next decade is a sad and private period in Blake's life. He
did some significant work, including his designs for Milton's
poems
L'Allegro
and
Il Penseroso
(1816) and the writing of his own poem
The Everlasting Gospel
(c. 1818). He was also sometimes reduced to writing for others, and the
public did not purchase or read his divinely inspired predictions and
visions. After 1818, however, conditions improved. His last six years of
life were spent at Fountain Court surrounded by a group of admiring
young artists. Blake did some of his best pictorial work: the
illustrations to the
Book of Job
and his unfinished
Dante.
In 1824 his health began to weaken, and he died singing in London,
England, on August 12, 1827.

Continuing influence

Blake's history does not end with his death. In his own lifetime
he was almost unknown except to a few friends and faithful sponsors. He
was even suspected of being mad. But interest in his work grew during
the middle of the nineteenth century, and since then very committed
reviewers have gradually shed light on Blake's beautiful,
detailed, and difficult mythology. He has been acclaimed as one who
shares common ideals held by psychologists, writers (most notably
William Butler Yeats [1865–1939]), extreme students of
religion, rock-and-roll musicians, and people studying Oriental
religion. The works of William Blake have been used by people rebelling
against a wide variety of issues, such as war, conformity (behaving in a
certain way because it is accepted or expected), and almost every kind
of repression.

For More Information

Ackroyd, Peter.
Blake.
New York: Knopf, 1996.

Bentley, G. E., Jr.
The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.

King, James.
William Blake, His Life.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

User Contributions:

Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: